Wes Anderson Shares Why He Was Unable to Accept His First-Ever Oscar in Person

In one of the biggest ironies of the 2024 Oscars, Wes Anderson—whose fans had been waiting for him to win an Oscar since The Royal Tenenbaums‘ nomination in 2001—won his first-ever Academy Award but was unable to accept it in person. While the auteur didn’t get a chance to give his acceptance speech onstage, Netflix shared his statement on his win.

“If I could have been there, I (along with [producer] Steven Rales) would have said ‘Thank You’ to: the family of Roald Dahl; the team at Netflix; our cast and crew,” the filmmaker wrote.

Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar received the Academy Award for best live-action short film. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the titular character, who develops clairvoyant abilities, allowing him to cheat at gambling.

Anderson’s statement continued, “And also: if I had not met Owen Wilson in a corridor at the University of Texas between classes when I was 18 years old, I would certainly not be receiving this award tonight—but unfortunately Steven and I are in Germany and we start shooting our new movie early tomorrow morning, so I did not actually receive the award [in person] or get a chance to say any of that.”

The film Anderson mentioned is reportedly The Phoenician Scheme, starring Benicio Del Toro, Michael Cera and Bill Murray. Roman Coppola is also credited as a co-writer. Last September, Anderson was awarded 1.5 million euros in funding from Germany to make the film.